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God Reveals Himself to Us – Part II
In a Very Special Way
 
If you recall from last week we discussed God revealing Himself to us through general revelation – through his creation, through nature, through His picture to us.
You may remember the illustration I used of my proposal to Rachel – that I had her put together the puzzle of me on one knee, you may remember her quote about the picture puzzle, “one of those cheesy OPP puzzles” – well she soon realized that the puzzle was me on my one knee ready to propose to her.
But as you recall the picture was not enough for us to be engaged – sure it indicated my desire to be with her and my love for her, but the actual proposal was not official until I said the words, “Will You Marry Me?”.
Likewise, God’s picture to us through nature and his creation (general revelation) is not enough to generate a new saving relationship with Him.
It only serves to make us without excuse – we know that there is something more, b~/c we see that there is a creator.
So God also, has given us more than the picture – He has made His proposal to us official by giving us His Word – revealing more of Himself to us through the Holy Scriptures – revealing to us His Son Jesus Christ and revealing a path to reconcile us (sinful man) to Himself (holy, righteous, just God).
Wow.
Last week we focused on the picture, this morning we will focus on the proposal.
God’s proposal to us and what we say to his proposal to us.
We will look at how he has revealed Himself to us through the Word.
Realizing that this could be a 10 part series (discussing special revelation, discussing God’s Word – this will be an upcoming EXALT class in the next few months), we will be merely scratching at the surface, but none the less this morning we will see how God reveals Himself to Us in a Very Special Way.
Prayer
 
Our text this morning is found in Psalm 19 once again.
Last week we looked at verses 1-6 and this week we will be looking at verses 7-14.
This is a beautiful Psalm outlining both general and special revelation.
Read 7-14…
 
You likely noticed that there are six synonyms for God’s Word in the first few verses.
The law of the Lord;
The testimony of the Lord;
The statutes of the Lord;
The commandment of the Lord;
The fear of the Lord;
The judgment of the Lord
Notice they are all ‘of the Lord’.
There is no mistaking that the Scripture is of the Lord.
The Word is of the Lord.
The law indicates the teaching or instruction of the Lord, the testimony refers to Word as it “bears witness” of the author – who is the Lord; Statutes are the orders, charges of the Lord; the Commandment of the Lord – refers to the Word as the divine order – to command the followers; fear of the Lord – properly teaches reverence for the Word; and judgments of the Lord – refers to His judicial decisions that are contained in the Word.
So the law of the Lord is perfect, converting (or restoring, rescuing) the soul.
The aspect of the Word being perfect is that it lacks nothing, within the Word there is fullest of God’s revelation to us.
It is an unerring guide of conduct – there is nothing in the Scripture that would lead a man to sin or err – rather it is perfect converting the soul.
The Word turns one away from sin toward holiness.
By upholding the law – it refreshes man’s soul.
Notice in verses 1-6 (from last week) that God’s revelation in nature does not penetrate the soul, but rather points us to an awesome creator – to the glory of God’s works.
However, the Word or the law penetrates a man’s soul – his inmost being is changed by the Word – restoring the soul.
The law preserves the life of the one who studies it – making God’s will known.
The glory of the law, or the revealed truth of God, is, that it bears directly on the soul of man, turning him from the error of his ways and leading him to pursue a life of holiness.
Converting power only comes forth from the ‘law’ of God or His Word to us.
God definitely reveals himself to us through his perfect Word.
We need to know the power of the Word – b~/c there is really nothing that we could read that has more benefit for us then God’s Word – the Bible.
No newspapers, magazines, internet sites have the power that David describes about the Word.
Not that we can’t read other things, b~/c all of us do and we can receive encouragement from reading, but what importance do we place on making sure we read the Scriptures.
What importance do we place on allowing the Scriptures to dictate our conduct, or allow the Scriptures to restore our souls.
Many of us could testify of times in our lives when the Word has refreshed us – like nothing else could – there is great comfort in the Word.
Maybe during a trial in your life it was the Scripture that brought peace to your troubled heart.
It is interesting when I visit people in the hospital – they never want me to read a magazine to them – they want me to read God’s Word to them – b~/c the Word is powerful!
What importance do the Scriptures play in our lives?
We need to invest our precious time in reading about God as he has spoken of Himself to us through the Bible, that the Scriptures may make us wise, that we may allow the Scriptures to encourage our hearts to rejoice, that our eyes may be enlightened.
Some people look at the Bible – which is God’s word - as being very restrictive, while others see the Bible as freedom.
Those who see it as restrictive are only saying that b~/c it gives direction against or inhibits them from pursing what their sinful hearts want to indulge in – so they attack the Bible as being restrictive or intolerant or narrow.
However, those who see it as freedom, realize that the Bible directs one away from the bondage of sin, thus creating freedom from the consequences of sin.
Some say the Bible is a bunch of rules, while others see it as a whole bunch of wisdom.
Some say the Bible is legalism, while others see it as life.
The law points out our sin, those who do not want to be reminded of their sinfulness are offended at the Bible, while those who want to know about their sin in order to repent and try and avoid future sin, they rejoice in the law and see the Bible as encouraging, as an irreplaceable component of their spiritual walk, and long to be taught by the Bible.
The righteous man, as described in Psalm 1 – /delights in the law of the Lord, and in His law (in God’s law)  he meditates day and night/.
The Words of God are precious to the man of God, he desires to know more about God and so he ponders the law of the Lord – all the time – day and night.
He finds great solace in the law of the Lord, great comfort, great joy and delight knowing more about God – as God chooses to reveal Himself through his law – through the Bible.
David is Psalm 19 speaks of God’s Word as being perfect, reliable, right, pure, fair, enduring, true, trustworthy & righteous.
We know in John 1: that Jesus is referred to as the Word (The Word became flesh and dwelt among us) and I can’t help but also think of Jesus as perfect, reliable, right, pure, fair, enduring, true, trustworthy and righteous.
What an interesting parallel and interesting how there is no contradiction of Scripture there.
Let’s take a look at what God says in His Scripture about Scripture.
The Holy Spirit led the Apostle Paul to instruct Timothy that, “/all Scripture is God breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”/
The Word of God is exhaled from God – it is breathed out from God.  God used real men to write His Word for us.
He used their minds and vocabularies and experiences to produce His perfect Word – without error and incapable of error – b~/c it is His Word. 
 
2 Peter 1:20, 21 say, “/Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.
21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were *carried along* by the Holy Spirit./”
Acts 1:16, “/Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas/”  The Holy Spirit spoke through David.
The Holy Spirit didn’t just show up at Pentecost, no the Holy Spirit is one of the Trinity – eternal and working throughout the Old Testament time as well.
David was carried along by the Holy Spirit to produce God’s Word. 
1 Cor 2:6-14.
This passage is amazing.
/ 6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.
/Paul here is talking about Christ /8//None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9However, as it is written: \\    "No eye has seen, \\       no ear has heard, \\    no mind has conceived \\    what God has prepared for those who love him"[a]— /
*/10/**/but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit./*/
/The Spirit has shown us Christ and the salvation that comes through putting our trust in him, recognizing that our sinfulness can only be taken on by Christ – he is the only one who could pay the penalty for our sin and as a result of us putting our faith in Christ we receive his righteous and his cleansing blood that was shed at Calvary on the cross – washes us clean and makes us pure and saves us from destruction and death.
/ \\       The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him?
In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may *understand *what God has freely given us.
/So can we know the thoughts of God? – YES.
Not all of His thoughts, b~/c many of his thoughts are too vast for us – but we can know of His provision for us – portrayed in the life of Jesus Christ.
/13//This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.[b]
14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
/
We have not rec’d the spirit of this world (as believers) we have rec’d the Spirit of God so that we can understand, so that we can comprehend, so that we may know what God has freely given us – He has given us freely – eternal life through Jesus and we can know that b~/c he reveals that to us, He desires us to know Jesus.
So Paul does not speak in words of human wisdom, rather he speaks in words that are taught by the Spirit of God.
So God ensures that His Word is recorded accurately and we know that He does not lie (Titus 1:2).
The Scripture cannot be broken.
It is perfect, without error, it is trustworthy and righteous.
Let us turn back to David in Psalm 19, verse 10 regarding the perfect Word of God,  David says about the law, the testimony, the statutes ‘of the Lord’ that “/More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”/
If you have a choice between the Word of God and gold – you need to choose the Word.
If you have a choice between the Word of God and much fine gold – choose the Word again.
You can see there is great value placed on the Word.
Money and riches cannot buy the wisdom and the life that is contained in God’s revelation to us – the Word.
You can not buy God’s revelation – it’s not for sale, although many do try and use their riches to earn favor – God’s revelation is not for sale.
In fact, it is free to us.
You and I merely need to pick it up and read it, praying that the Holy Spirit would illuminate the Word of God, that the Holy Spirit would make the Word make sense to us – so we could understand God – as he reveals Himself to us, as we learn more about Him, as we gain more knowledge of Him.
Let us not take for granted the value of the Word of God.
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